Gregs Puny Pico

[gregzbobo]

That's better! You've got some nice looking rocks in there by the way. Can't wait to see it come together!

Thanks. Wish I could 'scape them a bit better, make it a little taller somehow, might re-arrange again sometime, but who knows. I went "flat" happy with a few of the rocks, and they are literally quite flat. I have half a mind to whack that big bottom left-side rock with a hammer and use the pieces to 'scape better. But like I said, gonna LITHA.

 

BTW, do you folks think my sandbed is about the right depth? Its a touch deeper in front, but I figure once I get the AC70 and the rio 50 in, that things will even out some.

[trekbear]

I think your tank looks fine the way it is. ATM, especially while you LITHA as you say

 

I like deeper sand beds as they give the pods more digging space to thrive better since you have little space to begin with less rock so pods will be fewer and so, by having a deeper sandbed this should help w/ your pod population at least help keep it higher than others with shallower or no sand period. Plus the different patterns made by the filters give the eyes something to look at and give more diversity to the WHOLE picture/view.

 

Which store are you referring to in OKC? or is it out of there? I went to a big building well it was long and had A LOT of dry goods and some excellent frag tanks and several colony tanks too. The people were nice and very informative and surprisingly knowledgeable and actually didn't try to SELL something/anything. They answered questions truthfully and mostly technically correct. This store was off of NW expressway I think close to Lake Heffner... I can't remember the name unfortunately but, I do know how to get there. Being from Tulsa, I just don't know all the street names. I thinks it around May and NW Expwy... but don't hold me to it. I just really got back into the hobby after a 3 year Hiatus due to a quadruple bypass so, I understand the BP issues you mentioned. But, this hobby after the work is done is very good for lowering the BP by just sitting back and enjoying your endeavor. If you know the name of the store I mentioned above... please let me know what their name is and possibly the right street address or I can get it with just the name, thanks to google.

 

Great Job Thus Far, I look forward to seeing this grow out.

 

Later,

TrekBear

[Gerber77]

Nice aquascape and thats some great looking rock

[gregzbobo]

I think your tank looks fine the way it is. ATM, especially while you LITHA as you say

 

I like deeper sand beds as they give the pods more digging space to thrive better since you have little space to begin with less rock so pods will be fewer and so, by having a deeper sandbed this should help w/ your pod population at least help keep it higher than others with shallower or no sand period. Plus the different patterns made by the filters give the eyes something to look at and give more diversity to the WHOLE picture/view.

 

Which store are you referring to in OKC? or is it out of there? I went to a big building well it was long and had A LOT of dry goods and some excellent frag tanks and several colony tanks too. The people were nice and very informative and surprisingly knowledgeable and actually didn't try to SELL something/anything. They answered questions truthfully and mostly technically correct. This store was off of NW expressway I think close to Lake Heffner... I can't remember the name unfortunately but, I do know how to get there. Being from Tulsa, I just don't know all the street names. I thinks it around May and NW Expwy... but don't hold me to it. I just really got back into the hobby after a 3 year Hiatus due to a quadruple bypass so, I understand the BP issues you mentioned. But, this hobby after the work is done is very good for lowering the BP by just sitting back and enjoying your endeavor. If you know the name of the store I mentioned above... please let me know what their name is and possibly the right street address or I can get it with just the name, thanks to google.

 

Great Job Thus Far, I look forward to seeing this grow out.

 

Later,

TrekBear

The only two shops I actually purchase from, one is in OKC off Meridian and Reno, the other is down in Norman. I've not been to the one you mention, nor heard of it, although it sounds really nice indeed. Theres a place on May not far from Hefner Rd that might still be open, but I dunno if I wanna go in there again or not, it was scary the last time I went (a few years ago).

 

Nice aquascape and thats some great looking rock

Thanks, I was kinda worried the aquascape wasn't very good. I don't really like a pile of rock, I like caves and open spots for water to flow through, as well as mobile inverts and fish to be able to travel through, although this tank will see only one fish, if any.

[Gerber77]

You have a few caves and crevices in there. You just gotta remember there is only so much space you have to work with and it looks good. What kind of fish are you planning?

[gregzbobo]

You have a few caves and crevices in there. You just gotta remember there is only so much space you have to work with and it looks good. What kind of fish are you planning?

Thanks. Thought of elevating the frontmost part of the flat rock on the top left, but I think I'll leave it be, corals and such should make it look loads better once I get to that point.

 

Not really sure on the fish quite yet. Most likely a small goby of some sort, probably a green or a yellow. I've never kept that sort of goby, so a bit apprehensive at the moment as to its care. I've seen yellows at a LFS once in a while, but that was before I caught the pico-virus so I never really gave them a second look, although they ARE rather cute little things. I'll probably end up rigging some sort of bird netting over the tank to keep any fish from getting his wings though.

[Gerber77]

Clown gobies are very easy to keep and add a touch of color to the tank. They like to perch so your rock work looks perfect for them. In my experience with them they arent jumpers but you can never be too safe. Sounds like a solid plan

[gregzbobo]

Clown gobies are very easy to keep and add a touch of color to the tank. They like to perch so your rock work looks perfect for them. In my experience with them they arent jumpers but you can never be too safe. Sounds like a solid plan

 

Thanks. I MAY have to borrow a peppermint from someone local, or get one from the LFS if any of the aiptasia I've seen get any rowdier. This is the first tank I've had that had any of those on some of the liverock, I burned a few down the other day with a little kalk paste, that seemed to work pretty well, but I don't want to shock my parameters using that stuff in such a small volume.

[gregzbobo]

Well, I went to the LFS today for some water, needed to add some because of the AC 70 capacity, but before I added, I left it running and drained about a quart, then unplugged it and let the AC70 drain into the tank then I added to within about 1/4" of the top of the aquarium.

 

While I was at the LFS, I had them do some testing on the water, because my test kits are somewhat old, and I'm unsure as to their accuracy.

 

SG - 1.020

PH - 8.0

alk - 8dKH

calcium - 360

ammonia - "trace" (their wording)

nitrite - .3

nitrate - 100+

phosphate - 1.0

 

They used a hydrometer to test the salinity, I'm fairly certain its wrong because I own a refractometer and tested it to 1.025 before I went to the LFS.

 

I used my oldest PH kit and got 8.1-8.2

I used my oldest nitrate kit - ~15 mg/l

I expected low calcium as I've not dosed and used the IO mixed water they sell, which usually is pretty low on calcium, so I did not check it again myself.

The employee told me my alkalinity of 8dKH was "very very low", I usually shoot for 8-10dKH in my tanks, so am curious what he considers "normal".

I'm going to test my cycle parameters again with another kit-set I have thats not super old, and see what it says. If his nitrate reading is accurate, the small water change I did should help, otherwise, I'm happy with the 15 reading I got with my test.

 

I'll repost in a few with my findings from my other test set.

 

Retest:

Ammonia - ~.75

Nitrite - 0

Nitrate - ~80-100 on my 2nd test kit (hard to tell between colors)

PH - 8.1-8.2 (on all 3 of my kits)

 

Overall I'm thinking the cycle is coming along well, if not almost complete, the ammonia and nitrate readings have me a bit thrown off, it may be because the newest set I have is a combo fresh-salt set, and may not accurately read those parameters in salt. I'm going to just stick a flake of food in the tank, and wait for the diatom bloom, that seems to be a pretty good indicator of a complete cycle, at such time I'll add a hermit and a couple snails.

 

I think the next thing I'm going to do is acquire a complete new set of testing kits. The combo one I have is not too old, but its a cheapie Aquarium Pharmaceuticals set, and I am kinda wary of its accuracy.

My calcium, alk, and one of my ph tests is Salifert, but kind of old, will likely get Salifert again.

[gregzbobo]

I ordered and received a Current 18w single satellite fixture from petsolutions, I also received my order of chaeto (sitting in my nano display for now), 50w titanium heater (fits great, keeps my temp solid 80-81), and rio 50 PH (bigger than I thought, may look at the tiny Tunzes at some point) from Premiumaquatics. The light is a big improvement that should let me keep softies more easily, and gives me a platform to mod LEDs into if I try my DIY skills. I think I may have a hard time finding a heatsink to fit inside it, as its pretty narrow, the heatsinkusa small is almost as wide as the entire fixture, I could sawzall some of the width off I guess, but I'll wait and see in the next few months on what others come up with. The new fixture made me remove my temporary plexi cover, and the extra flow from the PH coupled with the heat from the light has increased evap. considerably. Time to think about an ATO setup. I like El Fabs, and I have most of the parts, just need to get a float switch and make some sort of snail-guard and figure a way to mount it high enough (I keep my water level about 1/2" from the rim, goes up to about 1/8" with the AC70 shut-off).

 

I also ordered from Petsolutions a coralife single timer (mechanical) and an Instant Ocean (fomerly Aquarium Systems) ReefMaster test-kit, got that kit for 20 bucks less than DFS was asking.

 

I'm still not too happy with the scape, I think I just have too much rock in there, seems to be alot of wasted sand surface in the rear that would be better utilized in the front, and my current 'scape just looks to much like a pile. I'm thinking of pulling a rock or two out and tossing them in my 65g or my nano, and rearranging so I have more open space in the front and a little more height with more spaces and such on the rock that I could place corals in the future.

 

As for CUC, one of the rocks I bought last week must have had a tiny (about size of a single piece of sugar puffed wheat cereal) nass. snail on it, because I've seen it crawling around in there, so I won't buy any of those, but I think a single blue-leg, a single scarlet, a pair of dwarf ceriths, and maybe a single astrea snail. Does anyone have any thoughts on my CUC choices, or suggestions, I'd be happy to hear them!

[gregzbobo]

I noticed one of my cats seemed "interested" in the turbulent water in my pico, like she wanted a taste. Can't have that, so I grabbed a piece of thin acrylic I had laying around, placed it on top on the front portion of the tank, and traced a line around the curve with a sharpie. I then grabbed my Dremel and cut it along that line the best that I could, then cleaned it up with a semi-fine sanding drum, and then polished the edge a bit more with a pumice stone I had laying around.

 

I don't have the steadiest hands in the world, and I don't have a router type bit for plastics for my Dremel, so I used a spiral cutter thats probably made for soft-metals. It worked, but the edge is a bit rougher than it could be. Here's some pictures, I'll detail a few things after the pics.

 

Center:

 

 

Left end:

 

 

Right end:

 

 

Left end on the tank shot:

 

 

Right end on the tank shot:

 

 

Finally, center shot on the tank:

 

 

You can see on the end shots where I had taken some scrap and snapped a couple tiny pieces off and then super-glued near the corners. This prevents the cover from sliding forward or side to side. The rear edge of the cover rests on top of the feet of my light fixture, which prevents rear movement. When this cover is in place, I can only move it a tiny bit in any direction. Another side benefit to this is it might cut-down a tiny bit on evap, which will be a big help.

 

I don't think it will block much light from the fixture, its very thin acrylic, and in front of the light, so I think it'll be ok. It should work admirably in helping to keep curious four-legged creatures (or young two legged ones) from putting appendages/noses/tinker-toys into the tank.

[gregzbobo]

I decided to snap a pic of the tank itself after I grabbed photos of my "1/2" lid. The first pic shows my brand new NimbleNano (thanks C Jerome) in the upper left, the modded AC70, the Rio 50 PH in the right rear, and the extra light from the Current USA 12" single Satellite I received. It seems darker because I was playing with my camera in an attempt to get a closer approximation of reality, still need to tweak it more though.

 

Dated 10/25/2009:

 

Dated 10/16/2009:

[gregzbobo]

Well, I got my Coralife timer on the 28th, along with my Reefmaster test kit. The timer makes it much easier to control things on my pico, I have my main light and PH plugged into the daytime outlets, the moonlight plugged into the night-time, and an extension cord with my heater, AC70, and refugium light (on its own timer) into a constant outlet. I'm keeping the fuge light on a bit of an odd photoperiod, 11ish am till 11ish pm, main lights are on at about 6pm and go off at about 4:30am. I work nights, so have my photoperiod somewhat backwards so I can enjoy my tank while I'm awake.

 

I'm seriously thinking of ordering 3ish pounds of uncured rock from sealifeinc, the couple rocks I got from the local LFS have some aiptasia, and 3 of them are almost unstackable with the 4th being they are super flat. One of them is also very thick and dense, seems to have little if any pores/holes. Hopefully the sealifeinc rock is pretty good and easier to stack, and more full of hitch-hikers, I've read on here and RC that it is among the better offered rock online, not to mention VERY inexpensive.

I'll get some pics on here of it if I do get some. Obviously will need to cycle it, but am already just half cycled currently, so starting over won't be so bad at this point.

[el fabuloso]

I really like how this tank is coming together. I wouldn't add any more rocks, especially since a lot of the corals you'll be adding on will most likely be on some kind of rock so you'll fill be filling that tank up before you know it.

[gregzbobo]

I really like how this tank is coming together. I wouldn't add any more rocks, especially since a lot of the corals you'll be adding on will most likely be on some kind of rock so you'll fill be filling that tank up before you know it.

I'd probably remove the flatter rocks (and the white base rocks) to a bucket with heater and spare PH, let them finish cycling then stick them in my 65g in the dining area, going to tear that tank down and totally redo it this summer though. I've had it for about a decade now (FOWLR) and its just time to redo it with more modern thinking, IE fuge-sump, thinner sandbed, redo the noisy plumbing and so on.

 

The 'scape in the pico is rather nice looking, but its very unstable, the rocks jiggle everytime my cat hops on the nightstand, and no matter how I arrange it I can't stabilize it, I've spent many hours messing with it, sometimes I get what seems stable, then I bump the nightstand and a rock shifts, or I get it mostly stable but also gain too much dead-flow area.

 

Most of the coral offerings at the LFS' in my area are way too big or on overly large rocks to go in a pico anyway, I usually have to talk the employee into fragging a piece down if I get one for my nano (and end up paying more than its truly worth), would be even tougher in this tank.

 

Maybe I'm just being too much a perfectionist, been called that a time or two before.

[gregzbobo]

I've decided to hold off on getting the sealifeinc rock for now, I may look into getting some of that epoxy putty and try that to see if it can stabilize things a little bit.

 

I'll definitely look into getting some of their rock when I redo my 65g though, I'll probably get 10-15lbs from them, and some from premium aquatics, and maybe a few other places, just for diversity.

 

But currently, the pico seems to be doing pretty well, still not seeing any algea buildup after a little more than two weeks, I just stuck chaeto in the fuge a couple days ago once I got my power center, so that probably isn't why no nuisance stuff yet. I have put a tiny bit of food in a total of 3 different times over the 2 weeks its been running, a tiny pinch of flakes twice, and a very small piece of mixed frozen cubes in once. Theres been a very small bit of diatoms, but nothing like I expected.

 

I made a small change to my AC70 outflow screen, I trimmed some of the plastic grate out on the intake-tube side of the partition (I emulated El Fab's design) to increase exit-flow on that side so as to bypass the actual fuge side a bit more and reduce flow on that side. I also cut away at the squarish notch at the top of the partition to let a bit of water flow over on top of the chaeto, as opposed to just in the middle and from underneath.

 

I placed a VERY small amount of sand in the floor of the fuge, I used a plastic container that measured about 2" square, filled it level with the top and put it in, so far its on the far right of the fuge and gets stirred up so no worries about detritus at this time, I am also considering placing one smallish piece of LR rubble on the bottom to reduce flow a bit more.

 

Otherwise, no real changes to note that'd require any pictures.

 

On a side note, I've been looking around on the internet hoping to find a place that can sell me a heatsink about 3" wide, and about 10"-10 1/2" in length to use for an LED retro in my Current single Satellite fixture. So far, best I can think of is hope that heatsinkusa can cut one of their "small" heatsinks down in width, or I just order the length I need and have a coworker slice about 2" off the width on the big bandsaw at work.

 

As for LED emitter choices, I'll probably go with 4 whites, 6 blues, and perhaps 2 UV wired in with the whites. Not certain on a pattern, but I hope I can get some input from the LED guru on this, I have a few ideas, but I'll have to play in MSpaint a bit, and I can barely draw a straight line without a physical ruler.

I'd like to go with 1amp buckpucks, but might also spring for a pair of D series Meanwells (pricey, but I love the ALC connectivity feature), either way I want to be able to run the blues separate from the whites and also have dimming capability.

 

I'm also thinking of coming up with an LED light for the fuge, perhaps a warm-white Cree mounted on a VGA heatsink-fan I have (measures 2 1/4" across, 1/2" tall, 1 1/2" fan diameter). Powering a single Cree along with its associated fan is somewhat beyond my electrical expertise, I can solder and follow directions, thats about it. Being able to put the cover back on the AC70 will be a plus to me, and satisfy my desire for as little clutter/equipment distraction as possible. Anyways, guess thats my update for the day. No news is good news right? haha

[gregzbobo]

I bought 2 dwarf cerith snails, and a pair of very tiny blue-legged hermits from a LFS on the 8th of November and added them in. I also put a Florida cerith from one of my other tanks, and a single nassarius from my NC12 in. Still not much algae, just a little diatoms on the sand, and what seems to be the beginning of a tiny bit of cyano on the outflow lip of the fuge, but my params indicate a fully cycled tank so in the CUC went. I also went ahead and put the carbon that came with the Picotope stock filter in the AC70, no sense in it going to waste, and no sense in using up a bag of Chemi-Pure Elite quite yet, but I have one on standby when the time comes, although for a while longer I'll just use carbon and change it every few weeks, probably till the new year or I see more algae than I want to.

 

I noticed a few aiptasia anemones, will probably end up getting a peppermint shrimp to hopefully cut them down.

 

Made a post in the lighting forum about modding the Satellite with LEDs, hoping to begin this before too long, unless I see something else come up that's simularish, requiring less DIY .

[gregzbobo]

Well, just thought I'd post a minorish update on how this tank is coming.

 

I pulled out one of the teensy hermits and put him in my NC, as I am still not having a whole lot of algae growth, thinking of getting rid of the nass. snail too.

 

I've still not setup my ATO float, kinda hoping someone who sees the thread I made in the pico forum can chime in and help me out a little bit with setting it up.

 

I've noticed some sort of weird algea/bacteria bloom on my sand right along the front wall where the fuge flow hits the sand, its sort of a weird grayish color, but otherwise looks amazingly like cyano. I've no idea what it is or how bad it is, will keep an eye on it and see if it recedes.

 

On a side note, I've been getting pre-mixed saltwater from a nearby LFS for years now, and up until fairly recently haven't noticed any real problems, except for some params being low as mix, they use IO salt. Anyways, I rinse out my 5g jugs thoroughly before I take them over there to get filled, and the last few times I've noticed some sort of black, flaky chunks in the jugs before I rinse them after I've used all the SW. I have no idea what this stuff is, whether it be buildup in their mix tanks or what, but I've decided to not buy saltwater there anymore.

Consequently, I just ordered a 50g container of Oceanic salt from DFS to try, was only 15 bucks, and the man with the pico that inspired me uses water mixed with it, so I thought I'd give it a go.

 

I also bought a couple 1/2 units of Chemipure Elite, a tube of epoxy, and a couple other minor items.

 

If the epoxy tube is of the proper diameter, I intend to use a portion of it for a snail guard on my float switch, the snail guard on aquahub is just too large, I ordered it hoping it'd work, but alas no, and they don't provide dimensions, so was sort of a blind purchase.

 

I've been seeing lots of baby aiptasias in it, and I am going to the LFS Saturday afternoon (today) to get a peppermint shrimp, lets hope he lives up to his aiptasia eliminating reputation.

 

The single zoa polyp thats in this tank seems to be doing alright, it still doesn't seem to open completely, perhaps the light its getting is more than enough and it just does not need to.

 

I've noticed a few spots of coralline appearing on the outflow of the fuge, along with a fair number of those tiny worms that live in the spiral tubes appearing on the fuge and tank walls.

 

I've been topping off the tank twice daily, and its due for its 2nd, regularly scheduled WC sunday, I think I'll change out a full gallon this time, see if that helps with the bacterial/cyano bloom I mentioned earlier.

 

The chaeto in the fuge is growing like crazy, pulled it out yesterday and it was rectangularly shaped, it had literally almost totally filled the chamber intended for it enough to conform to the shape. Ripped about 1/3 off and placed that in the back of the NC, and put the rest back in the fuge.

 

Pods EVERYWHERE, copepods and amphipods. Kinda worried about the amphipods though, some are getting rather large, I'd rather they not get carnivorous on my and start nibbling on that zoa in there.

 

Have been seeing some green algea on the walls, the stiff, semi-hard to clean type, my ceriths don't seem to be doing a very good job, in fact at least once a day I find one on its back that I have to flip over, I thought ceriths didn't do that? Honestly I'm not 100% positive that they ARE ceriths, they have the same shape more or less as the ones you might see on reefcleaners.org, but mine have mostly smooth shells, and are black with many many tiny white dots all over them, also they spend more time on the rocks and glass than they do in the sand. Anybody have any idea if these truly ARE ceriths, and perhaps can tell me what they might be if thats the case?

 

On the lighting front, I've got 10 LEDs in my cart on nanotuners along with the Berquist pads, plus the guys at heatsinkusa will be able to cut me a custom heatsink, once I pull the trigger. I'm waiting on a paycheck, and then should be able to go ahead and get the stuff ordered up.

I'm going to use 5 RB and 5 CW leds, driven by 1A Buckpucks w/pots, and once I get an RKL and ALC, I'll see about getting some advice on a voltage divider(?) to allow automatic control of intensity.

 

I got in on Bonsai's GB on a custom-made plexi cover, I'm looking forward to getting that and put on.

 

BTW, can anyone recommend an ACCURATE thermometer thats pretty small/unobtrusive, I have 2 in this tank, a Won glass one and a cheapie Walmart glass one and they read 2 degrees apart. When I bought the walmart one, I compared them against each other, and only 2 showed the same temp so I bought one of those, hoping it was accurate, but now I'm not so sure.

 

Anyways, I think I'm done with this picture-free update. Until next time!

[gregzbobo]

I finally got around to doing the majority of the work on my ATO setup yesterday (Friday the 27th), I got the wiring done, shaped the mold-a-holder, and made a much better snail guard from a tube of aquarium epoxy (thanks El Fab). I also drilled the holes for the water jug, unfortunately I didn't rough it up very well at all, and the silicone came free in the middle of its second auto topping off of today. I grabbed another jug cap, roughed it up with a knife sharpening stone (I've no sandpaper) on the inside and topside, and redid it.

I also decided to use a piece of rigid airline tubing from Petsmart as the pickup tube in the jug, so no hose curling goin on there.

I used an oldish Tetra Deepwater 18 as the pressure pump, its really very quiet and works great for being over a decade old.

 

I'll post up some pics later today (sunday), I'll try to take some especially clear ones of how I shaped the mold-a-holder for positioning the float.

 

On a side note, I am thinking of painting that and the tubing adapter on top of the float black, as the white really stands out when I see it under the light fixture between the leg and AC70.

[gregzbobo]

As promised (although slightly late) heres some pics of how I figured out how to mount my ATO float:

 

Full shot with it sitting on a no longer used Remora pre-filter box

 

Heres a good closeup of how I shaped the mold-a-holder I got from Aquahub.com. The long part (seen in first pic) rests behind the back glass, and at the top of it you can see where I "hook" the top of the glass to allow it to hang inside the tank.

 

 

 

 

And heres a shot of it actually installed. Just to its right, right beside the AC70 intake tube you should be able to see where I placed the airline hose where the water comes into the tank.

 

I'm probably going to end up painting all the white parts (above the waterline, not the actual wet part of the float) black with Krylon Fusion, I may paint the upper part of the clear snail-guard where the red cap is too, that should make it blend in better and be a bit less garish.

 

Otherwise I wired it up the same way El Fab did his, using essentially the same hose and airpump setup.

[plantarms]

nice float switch build! i did the exact same thing i just mounted mine with a double suction cup.

[gregzbobo]

nice float switch build! i did the exact same thing i just mounted mine with a double suction cup.

 

Thanks. The moldaholder stuff is kind of a pain to work with, but it worked out pretty well. I'm thinking of adding some velcro to the long piece that hangs down the back to make doubly sure it can't come loose, yet still be easily removed for cleaning.

[fiction101]

Has the oolite sand been less of a hassle or is it still getting blown around everywhere?

[gregzbobo]

Has the oolite sand been less of a hassle or is it still getting blown around everywhere?

 

Honestly its settled down quite a bit, I have my AC70 intake set mostly full to the right, but not quite, and I can probably move it a bit more left if I wanted to without disturbing the sand.

[RedMan25xl]

so I assume this tank has been taken down?